VIEWS OF A FARM BOY

Left: Old abandoned school at Napier, Iowa. Right: Old storrage bins at Napier with school in the background.

FEBRUARY-2018

When you reap the harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back and get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (ESV) (Deuteronomy 24:19)

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Let's Visit Napier

Left: I am sure this old school building at Napier, Iowa was once an architectural beauty and served its purpose well--providing quality education to this small Iowa town and surrounding rural area. It now sits empty! That is not a sad story--but a story of progress. Most Iowa small towns now cooperate to have consolidated schools that provide more educational opportunities to prepare Iowa's young people for college or their after high school careers.

Right: Old grain bins at Napier, Iowa. This was a common sight in the early 40's throughout the mid-fifties on Iowa farms and rural communities. Grain production was higher than demand and farmers did not have the financial resources to deal with this problem. The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) erected these grain bins because money was tight and farmers were desperately in need ot storage for their grain harvest. That turned out to be a good thing. During and after World War II this stored grain was desperately needed for animal feed, human food consumption and foreign aid relief programs. Some new CCC grain bins were built until the early fifties. Now, of course, these little guys are obsolete and dwarfed by the bigger and better grain storage facilities that are so much a part of the rural Iowa scene.

I drive through Napier often enroute to the farm. This town, or unincorporated community, is located on X Avenue east of Boone and west of Ames. You could easily pass right on by, but I often stop and look at the old school and old CCC grain bins. They may be in a state of disrepair, but I am glad they are still there. Rural scenes like this are so much a part of our Iowa rural heritage.